Broken Words, Broken Peace

By the 1860’s the tides of cultural conflict had grown too strong to be reconciled by either Whites or Indians. Treaties had been broken by renegade factions on both sides. In November 1864, after the brutal Sand Creek Massacre over 2,000 Cheyenne, Northern Arapahoe and Sioux warriors set up encampments along the Republican River in Kansas. There is was a report which said, “The White Man has taken our lands, killed our game, and now kills our women and children. Their treaties are only crooked, broken words. Break the peace pipe and raise the war club.”